and therefore are not the objects of his omnipotencie but that is only the object which is possibile absolutum So I think it is good manners to say God cannot lie or die because it cannot â—gree with his active power to suffer or to die So he cannot sin because it agreeth not with right reason In a word Deus nequit facere quod nequit fieri I think then it were breach of good manners to say that God could do any thing which were repugnant either to his wisdome goodnesse or power And though his power and will make but one God yet they are different attributes ratione for the will commands and the power puts in execution You say that they who deny witches deny spirits also and are a kind of Atheists A strange kind of Atheisme to deny witches but is there such a strict relation between witches and spirits that hee that denies the one must needs deny the other Sure the existence of spirits depends not upon the witches invocation of or paction with spirits We reade that Zoroastres was the first witch in the world and hee lived after the Floud were there no spirits I pray till then This is as much as if you would say there were no divels among the Gadarens till they entered into their swine You thinke the Angels know a great part of our thoughts because by reflexion they behold the thoughts of one another That the Angels know one another is out of doubt but how they know one anothers thoughts is unknowne to mee This I know that none knowes the thoughts of man but man himself and God that made him it being Gods prerogative to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they know our thoughts 't is either by revelation from God or by some outward signe and demonstration from our selves for whilest they are immanent and in the Understanding they are only knowne to God because he only hath the command of our Wills from which our thoughts depend The light which wee stile a bare accident you say is a spirituall substance where it subsists alone and may be an Angell Let us see where and when it subsists alone without a subject and then wee will beleeve you that it is a spirituall substance And if your light may be an Angel that must needs be an Angell of light What a skipping Angell will ignis fatuus make The Chandlers and Bakers trades are honouâ—able those can make lights which may in â—ime become Angels these wafers which â—n time become gods This Section consists of divers errours First you call the Heavens the immateriall world so you confound the celestiall world with the intellectuall which only is immateriall and had its being in the divine intellect before it was made Secondly if the Heavens be immateriall they are not movable for matter is the subject of motion Why then doe you call the great Sphere the first movable Thirdly an immateriall world cannot be the habitation of materiall substances where then will the bodies of the Saints after the resurrection have their residence Fourthly if the Heavens have not matter they have not quantity and parts Fifthly nor are they compounded substances of matter and forme but simple as spirits Sixthly though they have not such a matter as the elementary world yet immateriall they are not they have a matter the subject of quantity though not of generation and corruption Your second errour is that you call Gods essence the habitation of Angels and therefore they live every-where where his essence is Divinitie tells us that Angels are in a place definitivè and that they as we all live and move in him as in our efficient protecting and sustaining cause but not as in a place for Angels move out of one place to another and while they are on earth they are not in heaven but if Gods essence be their habitation then they never change place for his essence is every-where and so you make them partakers of Gods proper attribute Ubiquity Your third errour is that God hath not subordinated the creation of Angels to ours but as ministring spirits they are willing to fulfill Gods will in the affaires of man Then belike God made them not to be ministring spirits to the heires of salvation but they are so of their owne accord if so wee are more beholding to them for their comfort protection and instruction of us then to God who made them not for this end but as you say for his owne glory But if you were as good at Divinity as at Physick you will find that Gods glory is not â—ncompatible with their service to us but â—n this is God glorified that they comfort â—nstruct and protect us for this charge hee hath given to his Angels over us and so we are bound to them for their care much more to him for his love in creating them to this end Your fourth errour is that both generation and creation are founded on contrarieties If creation were a transmutation which still presupposeth a subject I would be of your opinion but seeing it is not and hath no subject without which contrarieties cannot be in nature I deny that creation is founded on contrarieties neither is non-entity contrary but the totall privation of being which God gave to the creature You wonder at the multitude of heads that deny traduction having no other argument of their beliefe but Austins words Creando infunditur c. But I wonder as much at you who is not better acquainted with our Divinitie for wee have many reasons to confirm us against traduction besides Saint Austins authority At first that the soule is immateriall therefore hath not quantitie nor parts nor is subject to division as it must be if it be subject to traduction or propagation Secondly the soule existeth in and by it selfe depending from the bodie neither in its being nor operation and by consequence not in its production nec in esse nec in fieri nec in operari Thirdly if the soule were educed out of the power of the matter it were mortall as the soules of beasts are which having their beginning and being from the matter must faile when that failes Fourthly the effect is never nobler then the cause but the soule in regard of understanding doth in excellencie far exceed the body Fifthly a body can no more produce a spirit then an horse can beget a man they being different species Sixthly if the soule were propagated in or by the seed then this were a true enunciation Semen est animal rationale and so the seed should be man Seventhly if the soule of the son be propagated by the soule or of the soule of the parent then we must admit transmutation of soules as we doe of bodies in generation Eighthly we â—ave the Churches authoritie Ninthly â—nd the testimony of Gentiles for Aristotle â—cknowledgeth the Intellect to enter into â—â—e body from without And Apuleius in â—is mysticall
â—ere needlesse for there is fulnesse of joy â—nd pleasures for evermore but if these â—ead were in hell your prayers were fruitâ—esse for from thence is no redemption â—econdly if you enclined to pray for the â—ead you did necessarily encline to the â—pinion of Purgatory for that depends on â—his and so you were injurious to the â—loud of Christ which hath purged us from â—ll sinne to the merit and satisfaction of Christ to the grace of God and justifying Faith Thirdly you had no ground in Scripture or any warrant from the ancient Church in her purer times to pray for â—he dead there was indeed a commemoâ—ation of their names and a meeting of Christians at the place where the Martyrs â—uffered but there was no praying either â—o them or for them but onely a desire â—hat other Christians might be like them â—nd their names were rehearsed that they â—ight not be obliterated by silence and â—hat posterity might know they were in â—lisse and that thanks mighâ— be given to God for them that the living might shew their charity to them and might be excited to an holy emulation of their vertues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad acuendam charitatem in illos quos imitari possumus et in illum quo adjuvante possumus This then was the better way to be remembred by posterity and not by praying to them as afterward when superstition crept by degrees into the Church You have a piece of Rhetorick ill becoming a Christian physician You blesse your selfe and are thankfull that you never saw Christ nor his Disciples Was it because he or they by curing all diseases freely would have hindered your practice I am sure Saint Luke a physician was not of your mind who was an inseparable companion of Saint Paul Did not many Kings and Prophets desire to see that which you slight and could not see it It was one of Austins wishes to see Christ in the flesh Old Simeon was so over-joyed with that sight that hee desires to depart in peace with a song in his mouth The three Wisemen were never so wise as in undertaking so long a journey to see Christ. It seemes you would not have taken the paines with Zacheus to climb up a Sycomore tree to see Christ but hee lost nothing by it for hee that desired to see Christ was seen by him and rewarded with salvation The â—oore Hemoroisse got more good by one touch of Christs garment then by all the physick she had received from those of your profession You would not be one of Christs patients in that nature as you say for feare your faith should be thrust upon you 'T is well you are of so strong a faith that you need no such helps but presume not too much with Peter to walk on the sea without Christs help you 'l sink I will pray with the blind man I beleeve Lord help my unbeliefe You had as leive we tell you that the soule is mans Angell or the body of God as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the first acâ— and perfection of the body It seemes here by your owne confession you love to humour your fancie for otherwise you cannot deny the soule to be the first act and perfection of the body whereas no man can conceive that the soule should be an Angell except you will follow Origens opinion that soules and Angels are of the same species which is absurd seeing the one are made to subsist without bodies so are not the other the one are intellective the other rationall substances The Schooles will tell you that the Angels differ specifically one from another how then can they and the soules of men differ only numerically But this will not relish with you who loves allegoricall descriptions better then metaphysicall definitions But tell us how you conceive the soule to be Gods body Hath God a body seeing hee is free from all composition both of essence and existence of nature and personalty of gender and difference in whom can be no corporiety because no matter without which a body can no more be then a dreame without sleep or bread without meat saith Scaliger Now if any matter were in God then there must be in him a passive possibility and quantity also and distinction of parts all which essentially follow the matter Besides God and our soules must make but one compound and so God and the creature is but one â—ompounded substance And whereas the â—ompound is posterior to the parts comâ—ounding it must follow that God must 〈◊〉 after our soules and must be subject to â—â—me cause for every compound hath a â—â—use of its composition What a strange â—od doth your allegoricall description deâ—ypher to us Were you not better admit 〈◊〉 metaphysicall definition of the soule to â—it actus primus corporis naturalis organici â—â—tentiâ vitam habentis then such a wild â—â—ncie that anima est corpus Dei You were 〈◊〉 good speak out in plaine termes with â—lato and tell us that the world is a great â—â—imal whereof God is the soule You say that God is wise because he knowâ—â—h all things and he knowes all things because 〈◊〉 made them all But I say that God â—â—oweth all things because he is wise for 〈◊〉 wisdome is not like ours ours is got 〈◊〉 knowledge and long experience so is 〈◊〉 Gods whose wisdome and knowledge 〈◊〉 co-eternall but in priority of order â—is wisdome precedes his knowledge We â—now first the effects of things and conâ—usions by discourse and then come to the knowledge of the principles which we 〈◊〉 wisdome but God knowes the principleâ— and causes of things simplici intuitu anâ— immediatly being all in himselfe the effects and conclusions hee knowes in theâ—â— causes and principles Secondly Goâ— knowes not all things because hee madâ— them all but hee made them because 〈◊〉 knew them for hee knew them before 〈◊〉 made them he knew them from eternity he made them in time and with time Againe is there nothing that God knoweâ— but what he made Hee knowes himselfe hee knowes those notions of our mind which we call entia rationis he knows nonâ—entities and he knowes evill and yet thesâ— he never made nor will make You define not nature with the Schooles thâ— principle of motion and rest but a straight anâ— regular line c. Indeed this is not to define but to overthrow a good definition the end of which is to bring us to thâ— knowledge of the things defined therefore Aristotle in his Topicks will have us to avoid Metaphors which cast a mist upoâ— the thing defined every Metaphor beinâ— â—ore obscure then proper words But I â—ee you delight in such fancies for you â—efine light to be the shadow of God I â—hink Empedocles his definition would â—lease you well who defines the sea to be â—he sweat of the earth and Plato defines the â—oles to be the little feet on
this last Judgement to be but mysticall then you may as well say with Socinus that eternall death and eternall fire prepared for the wicked is only mysticall and signifieth nothing else but the annihilation of the wicked for ever without sensible paine which is indeed to overthrow all Religion and open a wide gap for impiety and security The antecedent signes of Christs coming you thinke are not consistent with his secret coming as a thiefe in the night You must know that the wars and signes in the Sun Moon and Stars are partly meant of those signes which were the fore-runners of Ierusalems last destruction Secondly if wee understand them of the signes of Christs second coming they are meant oâ— such wars and apparitions as have noâ— been knowne in the world since the beginning in respect of the extent and numbeâ— of them Thirdly though signes goe before his coming yet men shall be so secure and hard-hearted eating drinking and making merry as in the dayes of Noah that they will take no notice of warning thereby then shall Christ come suddenly as a thiefe in the night Hardly hath any man attained you say thâ— perfect discovery of Antichrist These notes which are given by Christ Saint Iohn and Saint Paul doe most agree to the Pope who sits in the Temple of God as God and exalts himself above all that 's called God in throning and dethroning of Kings and disposing of their Kingdomes at his pleasure in pardoning sins in making of Saints and dedicating temples and dayes unto them in dispensing with cancelling and making of lawes at his pleasure in tying sanctitie infallibilitie of judgement to his Chaire and freedome from errour in appointing new sacraments and lawes in the Church and domineering over mens conâ—ciences in dispensing with matrimony forbidden by Gods lawes and the law of Nature in assuming to himselfe those tiâ—les which are due onely to God These and many other notes have prevailed so far with Wickliffe the Waldenses Hus Ierome Luther Calvin Bucer and other eminent men of our profession that they thought they had attained the perfect discovery of Antichrist If you know any other to whom these notes doe more exactly agree name him and wee will free the Pope from being the man of sin and childe of perdition A plant you say consumed to ashes retains its forme being withdrawne into its incombustible part where it lies secure from the fire and so the plant from its ashes may againe revive Admiranda canis sed non credenda For if the forme of the plant be there still then it is not consumed Secondly then Philosophy deceives us in telling us that the matter is onely eternall and the formes perishing Thirdly then Art and Nature is all one both being able to introduce or rather educe a substantiall forme Fourthly then the radicall moisture and naturall heat without which the forme hath no subsistence in the plant is not consumed by the fire but in spight of all its heat lurkes within the ashes credat Iudaeus Apella Fifthly then an Art being an accident can produce a substance and so the effect is nobler then the cause Sixthly then from a totall privation to the habit whose cause was taken away there may be a naturall regresse Seventhly if the forme of the plant be in the ashes still then it actuates distinguishes denominaâ—es defines perfects the matter for the ashes are not the first but second matter in which it is and so it is a plant still lurking under the accidents of ashes as in the Masse Christs bodie under the accidents of bread So by your Doctrine it is no hard worke to beleeve Transubstantiation or the storiâ—s of the Phenix Eighthly if the forme of the plant be still in the ashes then the forme is not in its owne matter but in another for so long as the ashes are ashes they are â—ot the matter of the plant but of that â—ubstance we call ashes Ninthly by this â—lso the appetite of the matter is taken away for to what can it have an appetite â—eeing it retaines the forme of the plant But I doubt mee your revived plant will prove more artificiall then naturall and â—ike Xeuxes his grapes deceive perhaps â—irds but not men So farre as I can perâ—eive in Quercitan and others who have written of Chymistry this forme of the plant is nothing but an Idea or a delusion of the eye through a glasse held over a flame wherein you may see somewhat like a plant a cloud in stead of Iuno A sallet of such plants may well tantalize you they will never fill you Though it be true that where Gods â—resence is there is Heaven yet wee must not therefore thinke that there is not a peculiar ubi of blisse and happinesse beyond the tenth Sphere wherein God doth more manifestly shew his glory and presence then any where else as you seeme to intimate when you say that to place Heaven â—n the Empyreall or beyond the tenth Sphere is to forget the worlds destruction which when it is destroyed all shall be here as it is now there First we deny that this sensible world shall be destroyed in the substance thereof its qualities shall be altered the actions motions and influences of the Heavens shall cease because then shall be no generation or corruption and consequently no transmutation of elements Secondly though this sensible world were to be destroyed yet it will not follow that therefore above the tenth Sphere there is not the Heaven of glory Whither was it that Christ ascended Is hee not said to ascend above all Heavens and that the Heavens must containe him till his second coming Did not the Apostles see him ascend in a cloud Doe not you acknowledge it an Article of your Creed Was not Saint Paul caught up into the third Heaven If you thinke there is no other Heaven meant in Scripture then Gods presence it must follow that Christs humanity is every-where because hee is in Heaven that is in Gods presence which is every-where and so you are of the Ubiquitâ—ries â—aith therefore we beleeve as the Church â—ath alwaies done that Heaven is locall â—r a place above this visible world whiâ—her Christ is gone to prepare a place for â—s which is called the Throne of God where â—ee have an habitation made without â—ands given us of God eternall in the Heavens Let us therefore seek the things not which be every-where but which are above where Christ is at the right hand of God The Gentiles as Tertullian witnesseth were not ignorant of the place of blessed soules quas in supernis mansionibus collocant which they placed in these upper mansions of Heaven Apud Platonem in aeherem sublimantur c. You cannot tell how to say fire is the essence of Hell nor can you conceive a flame that can prey upon the soule Flames of sulphur in Scripture are you thinke to be understood not of this present
with which you say you are not terrified but though you know nothing by your selfe yet are you not thereby justified The heart of man is deceitfull above all things And though your heart cleares you God is greater then your heart The salt-sea can never lose its saltnesse the Blackmoore cannot change his skin nor the Leopard his spots Againe wee must not think that in baptisme sin is washed away by vertue of the water What water can cleanse the soule but that which flowed from our Saviours pierced heart God in Christ hath done away our sins the baptism of his bloud hath purged us from all sinne which is sealed unto us by the baptisme of his Spirit and represented by the baptism of water You thank God you have escaped pride the mortall enemy to charity So did the Pharisee thank God that hee was no extortioner yet hee went home unjustified Pride is a more subtle sin then you conceive it thrusts it selfe upon our best actions as praying fasting almes-giving As Saul amongst the Prophets and Sathan amongst the sons of God so pride intrudes it selfe amongst our best workes And have you not pride in thinking you have no pride Bernard makes twelve degrees of pride of which bragging is one And Gregory tells us that ex summis virtutibus saepe intumescimus even accidentally goodnesse ocassioneth pride which like the scales that fell from Sauls eyes hinders the sight of our selves till they be removed Nulla alia pestis plura ingenia abrupit quà m confidentia astimatio sui 'T is vanity you thinke to waste our dayes in the pursuit of knowledge which if we attend a little longer we shall enjoy by infusion which wee endeavour here by labour and inquisition better is a modest ignorance then uncertaine knowledge Would you bring in againe ignorance the supposed mother of Devotion but indeed the true mother of Confusion I cannot be of your mind you will not have us trouble our selves with â—nowledge here because wee shall have it â—ereafter But I will so much the rather â—abour for knowledge here because I shall â—ave it hereafter For the Saints beatitude â—hall for the most part consist in knowledge â—herefore I desire to be initiated and to have a taste of that happiâ—esse here that I may be the more in love with it Shall the Israelites refuse to taste and look upon the grapes which the Spies brought from Canaan because they were to enjoy all the Vineyards there By the knowledge of the creature we come to know the Creatour and by the effects we know the supreme cause whom to know in Christ is life eternall For want of knowledge the people perish it were madnesse in mee not to make use of a candle in the darke because when the Sun is up hee will bring a greater light with him By kowledge we come neere to the Angelicall nature who are from their great knowledge called Daemones and Intelligentiae Shall I not strive to know God at all because I cannot know him here perfectly God hath made nothing in vaine but in vaine had hee given to man a desire of knowledge for Omnes homines naturâ scire desiderant In vaine had hee given to him understanding apprehension judgement if hee were not to exercise them in the search of knowledge which though it be uncertaine here in some things vel ex parte cogniti vel ex parte cognoscentis yet all knowledge is not uncertaine The Christians by their knowledge in Philosophy and other humane studies did more hurt to Gentilisme then all the opposition and strength of men could doe which Iulian the Apostate knew well when he caused to shut up all Schooles of learning purposely to blind-fold men that they might noâ— discerne truth from errour And though modest ignorance is better then uncertaine knowledge yet you will not hence inferre that ignorance is better then knowledge except you will conclude that blindnesse is better then sight because blind Democritus was to be preferred to a quick-sighted Kite The perpetuating of the world by coition you call the foolishest act of a wise man and an unworthy piece of folly You let your pen â—â—n too much at randome the way which Wisdome it selfe hath appointed to multiâ—ly mankind and propagate the Church â—annot be foolish if it be in your esteem â—emember that the foolishnesse of God is â—iser then the wisdome of man for as â—reat folly as you think coition to be withâ—ut it you could not have been and sureâ—y there had been no other way in Paraâ—ise to propagate man but this foolâ—sh â—ay There is nothing foolish but what â—s sinfull but that cannot be sinfull which God hath appointed There is sometime foolishnesse in the circumstances but not â—n the act it selfe then the which nothing â—s more naturall As it is not folly to eate drinke and sleep for the preservation of the individuum neither is coition folly by which we preserve the species and immortalize our kind You feare the corruption within you not the contagion of commerce without you You must feare both and shun both Our corruption within is often irritated by outward commerce perhaps our inward tinder would lye dead if it were not incensed by the sparkles of commerce without 〈◊〉 that handleth pitch shall be defiled ' tiâ— dangerous to converse with leprous anâ— plaguie people The Israelites are forbiâ— commerce with the Canaanites and we arâ— commanded to depâ—rt out of Babel lest we be partakers of her sins Grex totus in agris Unius scabie cadit porrigine porci Uvaque conspecta livorem ducit ab uva If you were like the Sun you might freely commerce with all for hee shines upon infected places without infection which you cannot doe and therefore to use your owne phrase your conversation must not be like the Suns with all men except it be in causing your light to shine before them There is something you say within us that was before the elements That something must be the soule which though Plato and Origen thought was before the body yet we know the contrary for God first made the body and then inspired it with a soule To give existence to the soule before the body can stand neither with the perfection of Gods workes in the creation nor â—ith the dignity and quality of the soule â—ot with the first for all that God made â—as perfect but the soule without the â—ody had been an imperfect piece seeing was made to be a part of man Not with â—â—e second for the soule being the forme 〈◊〉 was not to exist without its matter the â—ody nor was it â—it that so noble a guest â—â—ould be brought into the world before a â—onvenient lodging was fitted for her T is true that the soule can and doth subâ—â—st without the body after death but then is necessitated because the body failes it â—nd the house becomes inhabitable and it 〈◊〉 a part
then upon mans owne wickednesse saith the same Father Aug. de Gen. ad lit c. 17. Who in another place to wit in his Commentarie on the Psalmes sheweth that the Converts of S. Paul Act. 19. had been Astrologers and therefore the books which they burned were of Astrologie But is not Astrologie repugnant to Divinity and impious when it robs God of his honour which it doth by undertaking to foretell future contingencies and such secrets as are onely knowne to God this being his true property alone By this Esay ch 41. distinguisheth him from false gods Declare what will come to passe and wee shall know you to be gods And hee mockes these Diviners ch 47. and so doth Ieremy ch 10. and Solomon Eccles. chap. 8. and 10. sheweth â—he knowledge of future things to be hid â—rom man of which the Poet was not igâ—orant when he saith Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurae â—herefore both the Astrologer and he that consults with him dishonours God in a high nature by giving credit to or having commerce with those excommunicate and apostate Angels and so endanger their owne soules Is it because there is no God in Israel that you consult with the god of Ekron Now that Astrologers have commerce with evill spirits besides the testimony of Austin de civit Dei lib. 5. cap. 7. and lib. 2. de Gen. ad lit c. 17. and other ancient Fathers the proofes of divers witnesses and their owne confessions upon examination doe make it apparent Not to speake of their flagitious lives and their impious and atheisticall Tenents for this cause Astrologers are condemned by Councels and Decrees of the Church Conc. Bracar 1. c. 9. in Tolet. 1. sec. part decret c. 26. 6. The Angels in the very instant of their creation actually knew all that they were capable of knowing and are acquainted with all free thoughts past present and to come They knew not so much then as they doe now because now they have the experimentall knowledge of almost six thousand yeares and many things revealed to them since their creation Secondly they know not our free thoughts even because they are free and variable at our pleasure not at theirs it 's onely Gods property to know the heart yet some thing they may know by outward signes or by revelation Thirdly they know not things future for first they know not the day of Judgement secondly they know not future contingentcies thirdly they know not infallibly naturall effects that are to come though they know their causes because all naturall causes are subordinate to God who when hee pleaseth can stay their operations What Angel could fore-know if God did not reveale it that the Sun should stand at the prayer of Iosua that the fire should not burne the three Children or the Lions devoure Daniel Fourthly as they know â—ot future contingencies because they â—ave not certaine and determinate causes â—o they know not mans resolutions which depend upon his will because the will is onely subject to God as being the principall object and end of it and he onely can â—encline it as hee pleaseth therefore as Esay of the Gentile Idols so say I of Angels Let us know what is to come to wit infallibly of your selves and all and wee shall know that you are gods 7. Sir Kenelme sayes he hath proved sufficiently light to be a solid substance and body These proofes I have not seen therefore I can say nothing to them but this I know that if light be a body when the aire is illuminated two bodies must be in one place and there must be penetration Secondly the motion of a body must be in an instant from the one end of the world to the other both which are impossible Thirdly what becomes of this body when the Sun goeth downe Doth it putrefie or corrupt or vanish to nothing all these are absurd Or doth it follow the body of the Sun then when the light is contracted into a lesser space it must be the greater but wee find no such thing And if light be a body it must be every day generated and corrupted why should not darknesse be a body too But of this subject I have spoken else where therefore I will say no more till I see Sir Kenelme's proofes 8. The soule hath a strange kind of neere dependance of the body which is as it were Gods instrument to create it by This phrase I understand not I have already proved that the soule hath no dependance on the bodie neither in its creation essence or operation it hath no other dependance on the bodie but as it is the forme thereof to animate and informe it So you may say the Sun depends upon the earth to warme and illuminate it The body is the soules instrument by which it produceth those actions which are called organicall onely but that God used the body as it were an instrument to create the soule by is a new phrase unheard of hitherto in Divinitie God immediately createth and infuseth the soule into the body hee used no other â—â—strument in the workes of creation but â—â—xit mandavit 9. Sir Kenelme thinkes that terrene â—ules appeare oftnest in Cemeteries because â—â—ey linger perpetually after that life which â—â—ited them to their bodies their deare conâ—â—rts I know not one soule more terrene â—â—en another in its essence though one â—â—ule may be more affected to earthly â—â—ings then another Secondly that life â—hich united the soule to the body is not â—ost to the soule because it still remaines in 〈◊〉 as light remaines still in the Sun when â—ur Horison is deprived of it Thirdly if â—â—ules after death appear it must be either 〈◊〉 their owne or in other bodies for else â—hey must be invisible if in their own then â—hey must passe through the grave and enâ—er into their cold and inorganicall bodies â—nd adde more strength to them then ever â—hey had to get out from under such a â—â—ad of earth and rubbish if in other â—odies then the end of its creation is overâ—hrowne for it was made to informe its â—wne bodie to which onely it hath relaâ—ion and to no other and so we must acknowledge a Pythagoricall transanimatioâ— Fourthly such apparitions are delutions oâ— Sathan and Monkish tricks to confirme superstition 10. Soules he sayes goe out of their bodieâ— with affections to those objects they leave behinâ— them Affections saith Aristotle are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that unreasonable part of the soulâ— or rather of the whole compositum for thâ— soule hath no parts and though whilst iâ— the body it receiveth by meanes of its immediate union with the spirits some impressions which we call affections yet being separated is free from such and carrieâ— nothing with it but the reasonableand inorganicall faculties of the Intellect and Will And to speak properly affections are motions of the heart stirred up by the knowledge and apprehension of
the object gooâ— or bad the one by prosecution the otheâ— by avoiding so that where the heart iâ— not nor the externall senses to conveigâ— the object to the phantasie nor the animalâ— spirits to carry the species of the object from the phantasie to the heart there caâ— be no affection but such is the estate of â—he soule separated it hath no commerce 〈◊〉 all with the body or bodily affections â—nd of this the Poets were not ignorant â—hen they made the departed soules to â—rink Securos latices longa oblivia â—f the river Lethe which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wished for goddesse by â—hose that are in misery 11. He thinkes that when the slaine body â—uddenly bleedeth at the approach of the murâ—erer that this motion of the bloud is caused by â—he soule But this cannot be for the soule when it is in the body cannot make it â—leed when it would if it could we should â—ot need Chirurgions to phlebotomise and â—carifie us much lesse then can it being seâ—arated from the body Secondly in a â—old body the bloud is congealed how â—hall it grow fluid againe without heat or how hot without the animall and vitall spirits and how can they worke without the soule and how can this operate without union to the body If then any such â—leeding be as I beleeve that sometimes â—here hath been and may be so againe I thinke it the effect rather of a miracle tâ— manifest the murtherer then any naturalâ— cause for I have read that a mans armeâ— which was kept two years did at the sighâ— of the murtherer drop with bloud which could not be naturally seeing it could noâ— but be withered and dry after so long time yet I deny not but before the body be cold or the spirits quite gone it may bleed some impressions of revenge and anger being left in the spirits remaining which may move the bloud but the safest way is to attribute such motions of the bloud to the prayers of these soules under the Altar saying Quousque Domine 12. No annihilation can proceed from God it is more impossible that not-being should flow from him then that cold should flow immediately from fire 'T is true that God is not an efficient cause of annihilation for of a non-entity there can be no cause yet we may safely say that hee is the deficient cause for as the creatures had both their creation and have still their conservation by the influx of Gods Almighty power who as the Apostle saith sustaines all things by the word of his power so if he should suspend or withdraw this influx all things must returne to nothing as they were made of nothing There is then in the creature both a passive possibilitie of annihilation and in God an active possibilitie to withdraw his assistance and why should we be afraid to affirm such a power in God Before the world was made there was annihilation and yet God was still the same both before and since without any alteration in him So if the world were annihilated God should lose nothing being in himselfe all things Againe as God suspended his worke of creation the seventh day without any diminution of his power and goodnesse so hee may suspend if hee please the work of conservation which is a continuated production Besides as God created not the world by necessity of his nature but by his free will so by that same freedome of will hee sustaines what hee hath created and not by any necessity and therefore not only corruptible bodies but even spirits and angels have in them a possibility of annihilation if God should withdraw from them his conservative influence Ieremy was not ignorant of his owne and his peoples annihilation if God should correct them in fury Ierem. 10. But though there be a possibility in the creatures if God withdraw his power of annihilation yet wee must not think that this possibility in them flowes from the principles of their owne nature for in materiall substances there is no such possibility seeing the matter is eternall and much lesse can it be in immateriall substances in which there is neither physicall composition nor contrariety As the Sun then is the cause of darknesse and the Pilot the cause of shipwrack the one by withdrawing his light the oâ—her by denying his assistance so may God be the cause of annihilation by suspending or subtracting his influence 13. He thinkes it is a grosse conception to think that every atome of the body or every graine of ashes of the cadaver burned and scattered by the wind should be raked together and made up anew into the same body it was But this is no grosse conceit if he consider the power of the Almighty who can with as great facility re-unite these dispersed atomes as he could at first create them utpote idoneus est reficere qui fecit The Gentiles objected the same unto the Christians as a grosse conceit of theirs as Cyril sheweth to whom Tertullian returnes this answer That it is as easie to collect the dispersed ashes of thy body as to make them of nothing Ubicunque resolutus fueris quaecunque te materia destruxerit hauserit aboleverit in nihil prodegerit reddet te ejus est nihilum ipsum cujus est totum 14. But Sir Kenelme in his subsequent discourse to salve this grosse conception as hee calls it of collecting the dispersed ashes of the burned body tells us that the same body shall rise that fell but it shall be the same in forme onely not in matter which he proves by some reasons First that it is the forme not the matter that gives numericall individuation to the body Secondly that the matter without forme hath no actuall being Thirdly that identity belongeth not to the matter by it selfe Fourthly that the body of a man is not the same it was when it was the body of a childe Fifthly he illustrates this by some Similies As that a ship is still the same though it be all new timbered The Thames is still the same river though the water is not the same this day that flowed heretofore That a glasse full of water taken out of the sea is distinguished from the rest of the water but being returned backe againe becomes the same with the other stocke and the glasse being againe filled with the sea-water though not out of the same place yet it is the same glasse full of water that it was before That if the soule of a newly dead man should be united to another body taken from some hill in America this body is the same identicall body hee lived with before his death This is the summe of Sir Kenelm's Philosophy and Divinity concerning the resurrection In which are these mistakes First the resurrection by this opinion is overthrowne a surrection wee may call it of a body but not the resurrection of the same body This is no new opinion but the